


Exercises in Selfhood

by Scribe



Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-30
Updated: 2009-12-30
Packaged: 2017-10-05 12:47:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scribe/pseuds/Scribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for fizzyblogic, for the prompt "cuteness"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exercises in Selfhood

The first time someone mixed them up it was funny. They brought the article into feet and all had a laugh over it, which turned into an argument over whether Merry or Pippin was the better hobbit, and the whole thing was forgotten. For the moment.

By the fifth time it happened it wasn't funny at all, at least not to Billy and Dom. Everyone else was having the time of their lives ragging on the two of them, pretending not to know who was who or to think they were the same person. They grit their teeth and put up with it during the day, then sat down to figure out their revenge.

The plan was unusual, to say the least. It wasn't even really a prank, just a sort of...demonstration. It couldn't be done during filming, of course, but there was one lucky day when they were released in the early afternoon, leaving the others working as they giggled their way toward being de-hobbited.

They reemerged exchanged. Billy was wearing a worn tank top, Dom a button down with the sleeves rolled up and the top button undone to reveal Billy's greenstone and an amusing lack of hair. His own accessories graced Billy's hands, rings and a single leather cuff. They stepped out of the trailer and paused to give each other a final once-over. Dom pulled the final touch- his glasses- out of his pocket and perched them on Billy's nose.

"These are going to give me a headache," he complained, voice as low as he could get it and Dom's accent already in place.

"Worth it, though."

"Probably. You ready?"

"Ready." Dom stretched the vowel out ridiculously and Billy punched him in the shoulder.

"That is not how I talk, you twat," he muttered as they set off.

 

The plan required them to stay close at all times for full effect, not that doing so was an issue. They wandered slowly around, stopping back at makeup to see if anyone else had finished, then to craft services, then back to set. They didn't make any particular effort to show off what they'd done. It was easy enough to notice with the two of them just acting normal- normal for each other, that is. Not only had they traded accents and outfits but they seemed to be on the verge of slipping into each other's skin; Billy fidgeted and Dom hummed, Billy was more crude and Dom more wry. They even read each other's lines from off camera, which Peter rolled his eyes and allowed, as there were only a few and he hadn't counted on having them there at all.

They kept at it for almost an hour all told and for all that they made good impersonators it was downright eerie to see the switch. Perhaps it was just that they were so serious about it, but everyone who saw them agreed that there was something fundamentally wrong about it, something off about watching Dom affect Pippin's earnest innocence, watching Billy sneezing with allergies he didn't have. They more than proved their point. We may be close, the prank said, we may be similar in many ways, but we are in no way interchangeable.

 

Their seriousness disappeared in Dom's trailer, laughing over the reactions they'd gotten as they settled back into their own skins. Billy derailed them halfway through changing, fascinated by the way his jeans were slightly too tight for Dom and even more fascinated by the discovery that he'd gone pantsless in an attempt to alleviate said tightness. Needless to say, they didn't manage to get dressed again very quickly.

"Whoops," Billy said afterward, rolling off to sprawl on his back. That was too lonely, he decided, so he rolled back and slung a leg over Dom. "That was a bit unplanned."

"Best kind," mumbled Dom. He was still wearing Billy's shirt, unbuttoned and rucked up, because the little rolled up wrist cuff buttons had been too fiddly to bother with. Billy had managed to lose all his clothes, although he was still wearing Dom's accessories. He began to take off the rings one by one and place them in a careful line on Dom's naked stomach.

"We once had a rule about not doing this at work, remember?"

"That lasted all of, what, a week? Wait." Dom wrapped a hand around Billy's, stilling him in the process of removing the last ring. Obliging but confused, Billy stopped, leaving the ring hovering too loose around his highest knuckle.

"Keep this one," Dom said. He met Billy's eyes in small glances.

Billy looked down. The ring was fairly simple, two flat bands of silver melded together. He'd been drunk when Dom had told him the meaning of all his rings, but he remembered the gist of this one. It had been bought after a bad breakup, he thought. No, that wasn't quite it. The breakup of a bad relationship.

"But-" he started, and was interrupted.

"I know what I told you," Dom said. "It being about independence and sense of self and all that. It was never meant to be just mine, though, I always meant to give it to someone when I found a relationship I could be in and still be all those things, or one that would help me be those things. I mean, if you want it. I'm not, like, proposing or anything-"

Billy's turn to interrupt, which he did with a kiss instead of words.

"You wouldn't have to get so nervous if you'd just let a man get a word in edgewise," he said. He slid the ring back down onto his finger and settled it there, watching Dom's smile outrun his blush.

"You'll keep it?"

"Aye, I'll keep it for you." And Billy was utterly unsurprised to find himself grinning right back.


End file.
